Walter Benjamin's article "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" narrates how the mechanical reproduction alters the aura, tradition and perspective of art. The part that interested me was when Benjamin talked about the art's authenticity. He states "The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced." (Benjamin, 21) He goes on to say that reproduction of art separates the object from its history, which takes away the aura from the object. The reproduction of a object replaces the 'unique' experience of the original or the authentic object.
I have taken a couple art classes at Rollins. In these classes we look at the reproduction of art through pictures and sometimes film. Many times we will get to a picture where the professor will tell us that it is a bad reproduction of the original or the art is so much better in person. Seeing the authentic art in person gives the viewers a whole different perspective then they would get from the mechanical reproduction of it.
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